


Perc Place

by doodles357



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 10:37:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17140229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doodles357/pseuds/doodles357
Summary: “We’re both baristas and sometimes I have trouble reaching for things and I show up to work one day to find a personalized stool with hearts and my name on it i hATE YOU but also thanks”A Nico/Will coffeshop AU just in time for the holidays





	Perc Place

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a prompt. I actually wrote this a while ago, and it turned Christmassy, so I waited until now to post it.

There was only one reason that Nico had taken the job at Perc Place – he needed money for college. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have stepped foot in the place, even as a customer. When he had envisioned college, it had mostly conjured up images of himself spending hours ensconced in the quiet library, studying his way to a degree standing behind a counter, wearing an apron, and dealing with the general public for hours at a time was not something that had ever been in the picture. But life had a way of messing up his expectations.

He had never held a job in high school, his father was a wealthy businessman who supplied Nico with a healthy allowance, most likely to excuse his lack of presence in Nico’s life. He spent more time traveling for business than actually being at home. Nico was fine with this. He didn’t have a bad relationship with his father, but they definitely weren’t close. He felt more like a distant uncle than a father most of the time. Nico had never wanted for anything, and mostly had spent that money on fast food, video games, and band t-shirts. However, once he got to college, things changed. His father was paying for his tuition and room and board, but anything else beyond that was on Nico.

His father had thrown out a few phrases, such as, ‘gaining a sense of responsibility,’ and ‘work experience’ and other such ideas. Nico didn’t complain out loud to his father, since he had seen the numbers and knew how much his tuition cost. He knew that he was lucky that his father was able and willing to pay for his college, while the rest of his peers were taking out loans and fighting for scholarships. Still, he wasn’t thrilled with the idea of getting a job. Dealing with people? No thanks. He could live without McDonalds runs and poking around record stores. Then he realized that he would have to pay his monthly phone bill as well, and he didn’t really want to go four years without a McFlurry. Plus, some of his friends pointed out that it would be weird if he graduated college and had zero work experience to put on his resume. (Not that he knew what he wanted to do yet. He was still undeclared.)

So after a month of school had passed and he felt he had gotten used to his classes and the general college experience, he started looking for a job. It wasn’t difficult, as there were plenty of jobs on and around campus. A coffee shop wasn’t his first choice, but he didn’t want to work in the offices, and he had heard that if you worked there, you got free coffee. Nico usually wasn’t one for coffee shops; he was fine with a cup of cheap, black, coffee from McDonalds or the gas station. Coffee shops were expensive and crowded, and he honestly didn’t know the difference between lattes and mochas and macchiatos, so he never knew what to order if he did go in. But with this job, he figured he could learn and get some free coffee out of it.

Needless to say, he wasn’t a huge fan of his job. The customers could be annoying, the pace often got hectic, and he had burned himself on hot coffee too many times to count. But he got a paycheck every couple of weeks, and he got as much free coffee as he could ever want. And he was surprised to find himself generally getting along with his co-workers. Lou Ellen was a junior and she had worked there the longest. She had trained Nico when he started, and she had a straightforward and no-nonsense attitude that Nico appreciated. She was great at dealing with difficult customers and didn’t take crap from anyone. However, she was also pretty patient, and didn’t get upset when Nico made mistakes, which happened frequently at the beginning. She simply pointed out how to fix it and let him get on with things.

Cecil was a freshman like Nico and there were some days that Nico had to wonder how the other boy had gotten the job in the first place. He had never seen Cecil be serious for a second, and he was more accident prone than Nico, and on average knocked over at least three things per shift. They had put up a chalkboard that read “__ days since a Cecil incident.” The number was at zero most of the time. Once it had miraculously gotten to seven, but the next day Cecil knocked over an entire gallon of milk and it took them an hour to clean it up. However, he was great entertainment, and would imitate rude customers later after the shift, to the amusement of his fellow co-workers.

And then there was Will Solace. He was a sophomore, pre-med, and completely gorgeous. On Nico’s first day on the job, he had been struck speechless when Will walked in, tossed a casual hello to them all, before heading to the staff room.

Lou Ellen was explaining to him how to make a latte, and he had to focus his attention on that again. One day he would have to do this himself, so he should really pay attention to it. She had just finished explaining and was about to have him try it for himself when Will came back behind the counter, tying his apron around his waist.

“Hi, I’m Will,” he said with a smile, holding a hand out. Nico shook it, noticing up close that Will had pale blue eyes and a sprinkling of freckles across his nose. He was also very tan, as though he had spent all summer somewhere warm.

“Nico,” he managed to find his tongue again.

“First day on the job?” Will asked.

“Yep,” Nico replied, wishing he had something more interesting to say.

“I can already tell he’s going to be easier to train than Cecil,” Lou Ellen said, saving him from thinking of something.

“It would be amazing if we found someone harder to train than Cecil,” Will laughed. “I don’t think anyone else could accidentally drop a bottle of flavored syrup into a blender while it was on.”

“I think I can handle a blender without problems,” Nico found himself saying, feeling a spark of pleasure as Will laughed out loud.

Will was unendingly cheerful, pleasant, and kind, even when dealing with the most difficult of customers. He had a habit of suggesting the perfect drink for people who were undecided, snuck treats to young kids that were brought in with parents, and always had a genuine smile on his face. If Nico hadn’t gotten to know him, he would assume that it was an act, but Will was actually always that nice.

Back in high school, Nico hadn’t had much of a love life. (Scratch that – he hadn’t had _any_ love life.) He had figured out his sexuality back in middle school, but never really done anything about it. There were the odd celebrity crushes, and then one massive crush in high school on the captain of the swim team which went absolutely nowhere. On one hand, the concept of flirting and asking someone out was not something he wanted to have anything to do with. He wasn’t super comfortable around people that he didn’t know very well, and displaying his emotions was not something that came easily to him. On the other hand, boys were cute, and sometimes he wished that something could happen for him.

Will Solace was attractive, funny, kind, and overall a great person. Nico wasn’t sure if he even had a type, but Will was checking boxes that he didn’t know even existed. After the first couple of days working there, he got more comfortable around Will, instead of being a tongue-tied mess. However, he was nowhere near being ready to even contemplate flirting, let alone asking Will on a date. He didn’t even know if Will was interested in guys. With his luck, he was probably straight as an arrow and dating an equally attractive and wonderful girl.

\--------

As the school year progressed, the four that worked the morning shift got to know each other pretty well. Nico was used to not making friends easily, so he was surprised that friendships had developed so easily with his co-workers. Before long, they had inside jokes, and often spend time after their shift hanging around in the break room, chatting about school and other things going on in their lives. Nico found that it was easy to get along with all of them on an individual basis, as well as in a group. He tended to ignore his attraction to Will, as he didn’t really know what to do with it.

At some point, it became clear that Nico was shortest of the group, which was something that the others took great delight in pointing out whenever possible. Most of the supplies were at waist level or lower, but they kept some things stored higher, and Nico often had trouble reaching them. While Lou Ellen and Cecil weren’t that much taller than him (only an inch or two) they both were more than happy to mock him mercilessly for this. Will was a good head taller than all of them, so he was usually delegated to the ‘Reaching High Up Items’ jobs. He would make a big deal out of it, showing off how easy it was for him to stretch up and grab something. Nico would usually fire back some sarcastic comment, keeping his eyes safely averted from the strip of skin that would inevitably peek out as Will’s shirt rode up.

He didn’t mind the jokes. He knew he was short, and he wasn’t hung up on it like some guys were. Sometimes he pretended to be irritated by them, but he secretly didn’t care. He knew his friends were only teasing, and he enjoyed the joking around. And if it meant Will would make a comment like,

“Need some saving there?” and winking, before swooping in to grab a bag of coffee beans off the top shelf, then Nico could deal with the short jokes.

Until one morning he came in to work and was surprised that no one was behind the counter. They weren’t open yet, but usually Lou Ellen was there, getting things prepped. He could see that some stuff had been set up, but no one was in sight. As he rounded the corner, he saw it sitting in the middle of the floor.

It was a little wooden footstool, painted dark blue with a white skull on the top part where one would step. There were some hearts on the legs of the stool and underneath the skull was his name in bold letters. He paused, staring at the thing for a minute. It looked as though it would boost him up high enough to reach things on the top shelves, but the question was whether he would deign himself to actually use it.

Then he realized that there was some giggling behind him. Turning, he saw Will, Lou Ellen, and Cecil all standing in the door to the break room, watching for his reaction. He merely cocked an eyebrow at them and turned to start getting things ready for opening. He was willing to bet that one of the boys was behind the stool, but wasn’t completely sure. Cecil was definitely the type to pull pranks, but Will also liked to tease him. None of them confessed to the deed though, and soon they had customers pouring in for their morning coffees and the stool was all but forgotten.

Of course, that morning they ended up needing something from one of the higher shelves, and everyone else was busy with the heavy flow of customers. Nico pushed the stool over, quickly stepped up on it, grabbed the bottle of syrup that he needed, and stepped down just as fast. When he turned around, Will had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face, which Nico acknowledged with a glare. He would have flipped Will off, but figured that wasn’t the most professional thing to do. As much as he hated to admit it, the stool was the perfect additional height that he needed, and it was nice to not have to rely on someone else to grab things for him.

\----------

As the months wore on, Nico became pretty comfortable working at the coffee shop. He had mastered all the drinks they had, and while there were days he wished he didn’t have to deal with some customers, he was getting paid and he enjoyed spending time with his co-workers. Cecil was the only one he really saw outside of the coffee shop, since the other two were older and in higher level classes. He would occasionally pass Will or Lou Ellen on his way to class, but generally didn’t seem them other than that. It was a bit of a shame, as his crush on Will hadn’t abated at all. There were times that he could swear Will was flirting with him, but he couldn’t tell for sure. He had never heard anything about Will’s love life, and still didn’t know if Will even liked guys. At some point, he had found out that Will was responsible for the step-stool, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

On the last day of finals before winter break, Nico got to the shop early. He only had one final that day, and it wasn’t until after lunch. It was his English final, which he felt fairly confident about, and he hadn’t stayed up late cramming for it like many of his fellow classmates. After it, he would be heading back home for break. While he was glad to have a break from school work, it was going to be pretty lonely at his house. He and his father never really did anything big for the holidays, and his father had just given him money for the last few Christmases.

He was restocking a few of the shelves when a cold blast of air hit him, as someone came in the door.

“Morning,” he heard Will say as he stomped the snow off his boots.

“Good morning,” he replied, not turning around. He heard Will go into the staff room to deposit his coat. He was still rearranging coffee bags when Will came back behind the counter.

“How’s the stool working out?” Will asked, walking up to Nico, tying his apron around his waist.

Nico replied by sticking his tongue out at Will in response, causing the other boy to laugh.

“Do you have any plans for the break?” Will asked him.

“Not really,” Nico replied. “Lots of sleep, mostly.”

Will chuckled at that. “Are you meeting up with old high school friends at all?” he asked.

“Probably at some point,” Nico said. “A lot of them went out of state though, so I don’t know who’s all going to be around.”

“What town are you from?” Will asked next. Nico named it, and Will’s face lit up.

“I live only like half an hour from there!” he exclaimed. “We can totally meet up and hang out at some point over break.”

Nico ignored the butterflies that erupted in his stomach. “Yeah, that could be fun,” he replied, trying to sound nonchalant.

Just then, he realized that Will was standing right next to him, looking up at him.

“Do you need any help?” he asked with a smile. Nico frowned in slight confusion. He had almost finished getting everything up, and it wasn’t a difficult job. But Will was right there, close enough to touch. Nico could have counted the freckles on his nose if he wanted. By being on the stool, Nico was actually about an inch taller than Will, which was an unusual sensation.

“I think I’m fine,” he replied. Will just smiled and glanced up.

“Mistletoe,” he said suddenly, pointing up. Nico glanced up in surprise, and sure enough, a tiny sprig of the green plant was wedged under one of the ceiling tiles. He hadn’t noticed it before when he came in. before he could put much thought into who had climbed up there to put it there in the first place, he had glanced back down at Will, who was now even closer than he had been before.

Will’s eyes met his, and Nico couldn’t help the light blush he could feel spreading across his cheeks. He could tell Will was leaning in slowly, giving him more than enough time to pull away if he wanted to. But he didn’t want to.

Their lips met in a gentle kiss, and the butterflies in Nico’s stomach were now in a frenzy. Will smelled faintly like gingerbread, and his lips were soft against Nico’s. All too soon, the kiss was over, and Will was pulling away, smiling slightly at him.

“Merry early Christmas Nico,” he said quietly. Before Nico could say anything, there was a wolf whistle behind them, and the two sprang apart in surprise.

Cecil had entered the building. It wasn’t clear how much he had seen, but it was clearly enough for him to know what was going on. He tossed the other two a thumbs up and then headed into the staff room without another word. Nico could feel his cheeks burning but Will just sighed and shook his head at his friend’s actions.

“So, can I text you over break about hanging out?” he asked Nico, with a shy smile on his face.

And Nico nodded, his smile growing to match Will’s.

**Author's Note:**

> Can you believe that I've been writing fanfiction for thirteen years and I've never wrote a coffeshop AU until now?
> 
> Happy Holidays!


End file.
